Copter, cutters, careers: Coast Guard tells Morgan City about its mission

Saturday was a big day for little Stetson Ingram.

Stetson, 4, got to see how the radio works on a small boat that was part of Saturday's Coast Guard Career Day at the Port of Morgan City dock. His father, Petty Office 1st Class Robert Ingram, showed him how to use the press-to-talk button.

Then came the big show, the landing of an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter on the dock. Stetson was able to climb inside, and Rescue Swimmer Mike Antoon explained the basket that can be lowered from the helicopter by a cable to pluck stranded boaters from the water.

"That's going to be too high!" Stetson said. Antoon answered with a question: "How else are you going to get out of the water?"

Stetson was one of the people who came to an event that was part demonstration of the Coast Guard's mission and part recruiting opportunity. Cutter crews, safety and security personnel, the helicopter crew and others represented Coast Guard units based in Morgan City, Vermilion Parish and New Orleans.

As for crowd-pleasers, nothing says “military” like big machines, and on Saturday, the Coast Guard brought the goods. Attendees could take a look at the rescue helicopter and two cutters, the Axe based in Morgan City and the Amberjack, whose home port is Abbeville.

When the MH-60 arrived, Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Denning circled the big Sikorsky helicopter around the dock once, dipping low, before coming around again parallel to the dock astern of the Amberjack. The big rotors sprayed attendees with water from the Intracoastal Canal as the copter slipped sideways and settled softly on the concrete.

The MH-60 is one of three that replaced a fleet of five MH-65s at Belle Chasse last summer. They stay busy.

One helicopter and its crew of four is on call around the clock, Denning said. They're called out 300-400 times a year from an area stretching from Lake Charles to Apalachicola, Florida, and extending 250 miles offshore.

The record number of people rescued by by a Coast Guard MH-60 is 26, the crew of a ship that sank off Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Denning said his aircraft and crew rescued eight people from a 57-foot boat 15 miles off Dauphin Island, Alabama, in November.

"There's a lot of job satisfaction in that you get to go out and help people," Denning said.

The cutter Amberjack is a search and rescue vessel, driven by two 650-horsepower diesel engines and armed with a pair of 50-caliber guns on either side of the bow.

One of five boats in this area is out at all times, said Boatswain's Mate Blade Shoop of the Amberjack. The boat's crew is seven to 12 members and typical stays out three to five days at a time.

The Amberjack's jobs include not just rescues but inspecting vessels for safety violations and making sure no one brings in contraband. Shoop said that he's been involved with 60 searches over the last two years and hasn't found any drugs yet.

The cutter crews try to respect the needs of fishing vessels, especially in years like 2022, when fuel prices were high and shrimp prices were low.

"I don't want to hurt anybody's business," Shoop said.

He has one strong recommendation for captains: Get an emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB. In an emergency, the portable beacons can send a vessel's position directly to the Coast Guard.

"The cool thing about EPRIBs that I preach to captains is that they have information about the boat and cellphone numbers and stuff," Shoop said. And that information can be valuable to potential rescuers.

Docked in front of the Amberjack on Saturday was the Axe, the Morgan-City based cutter that has a different kind of mission important to the frequently silted waterways in the area.

The 75-foot Axe can carry 50- to 60-foot, utility-pole-like piles and tow a 68-foot barge equipped with a crane, said Damage Controlman Michael Ledsworth.

On a typical three- to five-day mission for the 15-member crew, they'll got to a spot in need of a navigation aid. They'll drive a metal "spud" into the bottom of the waterway to provide stability, and then drive piles on which color- and shape-coded channel markers are placed.

Along with the markers, the piles can also be equipped with radar reflectors.

The Axe works the area between Port Fourchon and Calcasieu.

The commander of each of the two cutters is an enlisted man rather than an officer, something Senior Chief Petty Officer Gabe Bosman, assigned to be the officer in command of the Axe, likes.. The officer in command of the Amberjack is Senior Chief Andrew Gyurscik.

"What's interesting with the Coast Guard is that it gives [enlisted personnel] the opportunity to be in charge of a unit," Bosman said.

Another recruiting fact: The Coast Guard now accepts recruits up to age 42. The service has about 43,000 active-duty personnel and a reserve force of 30,000.

"It's rewarding getting to see people get the whole picture of what we do," said Senior Chief Mark Molina of the Coast Guard's Recruiting Office in New Orleans. "That's what we're here for, to tell the public what the Coast Guard does."